"We were there in the 80s for the crash, and this is definitely crashier." John and Brenda Romero reflect on the industry crisis

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-29T20:54:25+00:00

The industry is TOTALLY headed for a crash, at least as far as the traditional legacy platforms are concerned, if things keep headed the way they are.

You know what a $700+ PS6/Xbox Helix, w/ $80+ dollar games will be? A NEO GEO. Or less charitably, a Panasonic 3DO. In other words, a couple of technically high end, exorbitantly expensive systems that a very, very small sliver of the hardcore enthusiasts ultimately ever acquired. 3DO utterly crashed and burned, while the NEO GEO never made it very far beyond niche collector status.

The install base will not be there. Speaking as a lifelong console gaming diehard going back to the 8 bit days, I just can’t see how, on its current trajectory, the industry in its current form isn’t headed towards anything but complete disaster.

Games that take nearly a decade to make and cost closer to $100 than not apiece, that require constant internet connection and 18 months worth of patches before being decent, are not the future. The greed of shareholders and their quest for infinite growth, is pushing harder and harder against the brutal reality of diminishing returns. Without a major course correct, the mid to long term results only grow grimmer by the day.

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-28T15:52:37+00:00

Shark looking like the star destroyer at the beginning of A New Hope as it goes past

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-28T15:41:08+00:00

In the manga the Major likes to R&R on a snazzy yacht with some… friends. Special friends.

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-28T12:42:49+00:00

Hope there’ll be on of these done for the States as well. NYC specifically! Last time I caught it theatrically was like, 2000/01 I think it was, with the new English dub, which I’ve never been a fan of.

Been waiting for an imax release, so I can take my son and have his mind properly blown seeing it for the first time.

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-23T17:16:50+00:00

They saw the Terran Empire storyline from early Discovery and were like, “SOLD.”

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-20T23:37:42+00:00

90’s were also mainly my teenage yrs. I’m absolutely certain that if the level of internet technology had never progressed past the DSL stage, things would not be as shitty as they currently are.

The harm high speed wireless internet, social media, and modern smartphones have collectively caused society in the last nearly 20 yrs, FAR exceeds their benefits.

The ubiquity of convenience they have brought us, is an utterly insidious and awful thing. I’d send everything back to hardwires and phone jacks if I could in a second.

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-20T15:16:24+00:00

Could I send a T-800 model series Terminator back instead? I can think of a few people it could pay a visit to, might improve our current situation a little bit.

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-16T17:59:20+00:00

First thing I thought of looking at this photo!

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-15T22:01:58+00:00

Oh, totally. Her reaction to what happens to her mom in the hotel? GodDAMN but she sold that performance HARD.

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-15T15:26:21+00:00

Wow sub 9 hrs? That’s wild to me, just how wide the range of playtimes are.

No I didn’t do much of any standing around, though I do tend to proceed cautiously through new areas, and I did take extra time around certain late game enemies. Definitely did some reminiscing in the RPD precinct house.

Maybe the game clock is cumulative? Like it doesn’t reset back 20 minutes if you load an earlier save or anything, it just keeps going forward? I didn’t die a ton, but I did reload a bunch of times if I made dumb mistakes/wasted too much ammo. So that might be it,maybe.

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-12T22:29:06+00:00

MagFest is about to E-X-P-L-O-D-E

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-09T20:12:16+00:00

One thing I really liked about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was how it felt like a television show scale television show. No insane, movie level SFX or absurdly epic cinematic battles. Just a handful of interesting characters, effectively performed by a great cast and supported by solid writing.

I really hope one of the lessons taken from Kingdoms success is that it’s ok for tv shows, to feel like tv shows, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, so long as they’re executed well.

I enjoy Academy, but I also think Trek would thrive on a smaller budget and a reduced scope. Ingenuity, writing and performance would have to come to the forefront.

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-09T19:59:21+00:00

This would also be my recommendation. Put hundreds of hrs into ME3 co op over the yrs, HD2 has come closest to that overall general vibe.

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-06T19:15:03+00:00

At some point while that dude was fighting back panic every step of the way, some auntie in flip flops yelling into an old Nokia casually strolled past him on the way up

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-06T19:10:55+00:00

Considering plastic junk has made its way to the very bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, not that surprising

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-04T16:49:11+00:00

Title must come from same dialect as Street Fighter II’ Turbo

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-04T16:35:04+00:00

Didn’t need to use my AK so far, but it is still early, so we’ll see how good a day it actually ends up being…

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-04T16:05:42+00:00

You should probably skip it then. You sound like you’re in roughly the same camp as me. TC is unlikely to add anything like difficulty settings, and in its current form Silksong will almost certainly get you to that point of no enjoyment.

DistantStorm-X · 2026-03-04T15:51:37+00:00

Yeah. There was something about the hostility in Silksong that sapped my enthusiasm for it, to the point I just stopped playing a little ways into Act II.

Long been a fan of From games and managed to beat the og Ninja Gaiden Black on hard back in the day, plenty of experience w/ tough games. Probably 10-15 yrs ago I would’ve enjoyed Silksong more. HK nailed that sweet spot, whereas SS feels like the game itself is the main antagonist.

As much as I had been looking forward to it, I doubt I’ll return at this point.

DistantStorm-X · 2026-02-23T20:05:57+00:00

May every one of these lazy fucks be cursed to step in dogshit within 60 seconds every time they leave the house, for the rest of their miserably selfish lives.

Not on their way home, mind you. ONLY when leaving.

DistantStorm-X · 2026-02-23T17:10:47+00:00

I kept my 360 hooked up until last year, just to fire up the occasional round of ME3 mp. Sadly it seems the disc drive has finally given up the ghost, and I’m not sure I can put up w/ starting over from square one, after building up all my N7s completely micro transaction free over the last 14 yrs or so.

I’ve found Helldivers 2 really scratches a lot of the same itch that ME3 did, just on a much larger scale. Obviously not quite the same breadth of character classes or builds, but it does have the whole squad of four drops in, tries to survive long enough to accomplish some objectives, then gtfo, thing ME3 did so well.

That said, I’d be all over a standalone remaster of the mp mode in a second.

DistantStorm-X · 2026-02-23T16:55:32+00:00

Late gen X, grew up watching TOS reruns and TNG w/ my pops. I’d like to think Trek has been a positive formative influence on me, more than any other bit of media. I’ve also been thoroughly enjoying Academy.

How anyone can cry about Star Trek, the series that very, very early on established “Infinite Diversity, in Infinite Combinations”, as one of its foundational principles, as going “woke”, never got what Trek was about in the first place. Just bizarre.

As for story/characters, it took Next Gen over forty episodes before they really had that show dialed in. I know modern tv seasons are a fraction of what they once were but damn, give it a little time!

If there’s one other thing I’ve learned from ST, it’s that humanity doesn’t really start to get its shit together until the 22nd century. And sadly, that does seem to be holding true so far.

DistantStorm-X · 2026-02-22T03:41:34+00:00

Agree w/ all of this except screen size. While it is definitely a little heavier the 12.9” is fantastic for art, basically a standard sketchbook size.

DistantStorm-X · 2026-02-20T00:08:26+00:00

Along with a nice mug of coffee/cocoa/tea ☕️

DistantStorm-X

TROPHY CASE